A family of Warao Indians in the Orinoco delta, Venezuela, 2022 (photography)

A family of Warao Indians in the Orinoco delta, Venezuela. The Orinoco basin is threatened by agricultural and mining exploitation and climate change. The Orinoco River basin covers some 980,000 square kilometers between Colombia and Venezuela and includes part of the Amazon biome and the Northern Andes. Its habitat contains a great variety of wetlands, savannahs, forests and jungles, where 17,420 species of plants, 1,300 birds, more than 1,100 species of fish, 250 mammals and 119 reptiles live. Threats such as climate change, the deforestation of more than 30,000 hectares per year, the contamination of land and water by agrochemicals and urban waste, as well as the intensification of land use, endanger the habitat of the Orinoco delta, the third mightiest river on the planet. Global warming directly affects the indigenous peoples of the upper Guajira and the Orinoco Delta. The Wayuu frequently suffer from drought and it is expected that within the next 30 to 50 years, a third of the Delta Amacuro state will be under seawater.